An office grand opening is the “icing on the cake” for a provincial organization in Fort St John that provides support to survivors of residential schools and their loved ones.
The new office for the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, in the Treaty 8 Building, will open this Friday, Oct 3, and residents are invited to come and meet local staff. Services at the facility will be available for those impacted by the generational trauma caused by residential schools.
“We offer cultural, traditional mental wellness support for families and the children of residential school survivors. We do wraparound services for them, and wellness work with community members,” said Connie Greyeyes, the MMIWG northern coordinator at the survivor society.
Greyeyes, as well as the executive director and various department heads who work at the society will attend the event. Residents are invited to meet them from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“When you come on Friday, you can expect to share a meal with us and have a good conversation,” she explained.
Non-Indigenous visitors are encouraged to pop into the grand opening on Friday for soup and snacks. Greyeyes said attending local events, like the IRSSS’, shows support for survivors.
“The experiences that many of our elders speak of, while they feel so atrocious and unbelievable, they are and those things have really happened,” she elaborated. “A lot of (events) say ‘everyone’s welcome’ and that’s meant. Come and enjoy the rich culture that Indigenous communities have to offer and if you get to know the members, you’ll see we have a lot in common.”
For workers at the IRSSS, this office signifies a physical location where they can host free workshops and trauma teams to speak with members of the community.
“The fact that we now have an office that we can bring community members into is just the icing on the cake,” said Greyeyes, who is certified in Indigenous focusing-orientated therapy and will now host one-on-one sessions at the office on 100 Avenue.
On the day after the grand opening, Greyeyes will speak about human rights across the street from her new office at the Lido Theatre’s Massey Lecture event.
